Herodotus: Volume 2

Herodotus and the World

Edited by Rosaria Vignolo Munson

Description

The ancient historian Herodotus, the Father of History, is also considered a great anthropologist. In his account of the Persian invasions of Greece in the fifth century BCE, he searches for the forces that transformed Persians from an underprivileged nation into the rulers of the largest empire of antiquity. In his Histories , he explores the non-Hellenic peoples that were either conquered by the Persians or managed to resist or elude their aggression, such as the Lydians, Egyptians, Libyans, Scythians, and Thracians, and describes the lands they inhabit, their resources, customs, religious rituals, and cultural predisposition.

This second volume of the Oxford Readings in Classical Studies on Herodotus focuses on his description of foreign lands and peoples, and on the theoretical issues it raises. The selected essays look at the principles of Herodotus' research concerning the physical world in the light of traditional myth and the science of his times, and deal with the connections between travelling and storytelling, culture and gender, Hellenic and barbarian religions, and memory and ethnicity - all within the context of his insistence on the basic unity of human experience. Central to this collection is the extent to which the Histories's ethnographic portrayals conform to conventional Greek constructs of barbarian 'otherness', or derive from field-work and direct contact with native sources.

Herodotus: Volume 2

Herodotus and the World

Edited by Rosaria Vignolo Munson

Table of Contents

Introduction Rosaria V. MunsonPhysis and Historiê 1: The Boundaries of Earth, James S. Romm 2: Herodotus and Analogy, Aldo Corcella 3: Herodotus and Historia, Catherine Darbo-PeschanskiThe Homeric wanderer 4: Odysseus and the Historians, John MarincolaWomen in Herodotus 5: Exit Atossa: Images of Women in Greek Historiography about Persia, Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg and Addendun by Amélie Kuhrt 6: Women and Culture in Herodotus Histories, Carolyn DewaldWorld religions and the divine 7: Herodotus and Religion, John Gould 8: Herodotus on the Names of Gods: Polytheism as a Historical Problem, Walter BurkertHerodotus barbaroi 9: Women's Customs among the Savages in Herodotus, Michèle Rosellini and Suzanne Saïd 10: Imaginary Scythians: Space and Nomadism, Françcois Hartog 11: Herodotus the Tourist, James Redfield 12: Herodotus and an Egyptian Mirage, Ian S. Moyer 13: Who Are Herodotus' Persians?, Rosaria V. MunsonUs and them 14: Ethnicity, Genealogy, and Hellenism in Herodotus, Rosalind Thomas 15: East is East and West is West - Or Are They? National Stereotypes in Herodotus, Christopher PellingBibliography of Works CitedAcknowledgementsIndex